CashNews.co
Mortgage lending grew steadily for the second successive quarter, rising by 15% year-on-year, despite the continuing affordability challenges facing first-time buyers, figures from UK Finance’s Household Finance Review for Q3 2024.
In the third quarter, as lenders were able to reduce prices further, application volumes increased, thus pointing to further lending growth in the final quarter of 2024.
While affordability challenges have eased over the course of the year, they continued to impact both homebuyers and those looking to remortgage.
Internal product transfers, where an affordability assessment is not needed, remained popular and accounted for 83% of all refinancing in Q3.
The number of mortgages in arrears fell by 3% to 106,630.
Early arrears cases also fell again, suggesting a further fall in total arrears numbers in Q4.
There were 1,700 mortgage repossessions in Q3, unchanged from Q2 and still substantially below pre-pandemic levels.
Eric Leenders, managing director of personal finance, said: “We are seeing more signs that the cost-of-living pressures bearing down on households are beginning to ease, with mortgage lending and savings both increasing during the quarter.
“Notice accounts have proved popular for those households able to save more of their money.
“Although the challenges facing households are far from over, the picture that’s emerging from our data is one of gradual improvement.
“We know this will not be the case for all households though and I’d encourage anyone who might be struggling to reach out to their lender for support.”